The present invention relates to a front structure of a vehicle, and particularly relates to a front structure of a vehicle, in which an engine is laterally disposed in an engine room at a front portion of the vehicle, an intake pipe is disposed in front of the engine, and an exhaust pipe is disposed in back of the engine.
Conventionally, a front-engine front-drive type (hereinafter, referred to as FF type) has been adopted to a normal vehicle for a roomy vehicle compartment. Herein, an engine of the vehicle is generally disposed laterally (a cylinder line is located along a vehicle width direction) so that an output shaft and a drive shaft of the engine are located in parallel because of its superior drive efficiency.
Further, in recent years many vehicles have adopted a layout in which an exhaust pipe is disposed in back of the engine so that the distance from an exhaust port to a catalyst can be shortened in order to provide a low emission of exhaust gas.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 11-198663, for example, discloses a FF type of vehicle having such an exhaust-back layout.
Herein, it may be preferable that a layout of the exhaust pipe be such that the exhaust pipe extends as straightly as possible to improve an exhaust efficiency and thereby an engine output.
An exhaust pipe of the vehicle disclosed in the above-described patent publication shows a crank-shape layout. That is, the exhaust pipe extending from an upper portion of the engine first bends downward vertically and then extends rearward horizontally so as to get around a dash panel of the vehicle.
The engine having such a complexly-bent exhaust pipe could not improve the exhaust efficiency, so that the engine output could not increased.
Further, the above-described exhaust-back layout engine has a concern that a vehicle crash would cause the dash panel to be pushed rearward greatly because of pushing by the exhaust pipe, so that a rearward deformation of the dash panel would become improperly large.
Although a sufficient longitudinal space provided between the engine and the dash panel may reduce the above-described rearward deformation of the dash panel, this layout would deteriorate the roomy vehicle compartment because the dash panel inevitably needs to be located rearward. Further, this layout may require the engine to be located forward, so that a weight balance of the vehicle would deteriorate and thereby the maneuverability of the vehicle would deteriorate.